Assyria’s last great king Assurbanipal invested much time and effort ensuring that his accomplishments both on and off the battlefield were immortalized as he wished to his gods and subjects, foreign rulers and dignitaries, future kings of Assyria, and future generations of Assyrians. Numerous royal inscriptions and sculpted stone orthostats are a testament to the large number of scribes and artists involved in the creation and masterful reworking of his image as a warrior without equal, a fearless lion hunter, a well-educated and literate ruler, and a devoted supporter of religious institutions. This selection of Assurbanipal’s inscriptions presents for the first time full editions of the prism inscriptions I and T and new editions of several important texts written on clay tablets from the library collections at Nineveh. These texts describe Assurbanipal’s youth and education, military campaigns against Egypt and Elam, the return of Marduk’s statue to Babylon, and the building and decoration of numerous temples and sanctuaries in Assyrian and Babylonian cities.
Like the rest of the SAACT series, the volume is primarily intended as a teaching aid and is ideal for both classroom teaching and for self-study. Besides providing an introduction to the inscriptions of Assurbanipal and an appealing alternative to the “Annals of Sennacherib,” it now makes it possible, for example, for first time to read Assurbanipal’s famous “School Days Inscription” (L4) in class. Each text is presented both in cuneiform and in transliteration with fresh English translations. Moreover, the book includes a list of logograms and their readings, an Akkadian glossary, an index of personal, geographical and divine names, and a sign list, everything needed to read these important Assyrian compositions.
